Saturday, May 11, 2013

Stories I Found Of Interest (weekly)

I predict that the eBay Global Sales platform will be the biggest thing to happen to online retail since Amazon.com.

What is it? It's a new feature eBay soft opened last month, and it is available for all U.S. sellers.

1. You enable it on eBay with a few clicks 2. eBay then propagates your listings over their network in 27 countries 3. When you get an international order, you ship it to eBay in Kentucky 4. You pay the same fees as you would for any other domestic shipment 5. eBay then ships it overseas, handling customs, export, and shipment 6. Did I mention your fees don't change? eBay charges the customer for the international shipment. 7. eBay removes any negative feedback as to the process from Kentucky forward, were you to receive any

In the click of a mouse, you can now take your business from domestic to worldwide, as simple as shipping your packages to Kentucky.

This is a game changer. For anyone that sells on Amazon, you now know why you have received 5 emails in the last 2 weeks from Amazon talking about you expanding with Amazon to other countries, but Amazon thus far makes it difficult to do so.

I predict that the eBay Global Sales platform will be the biggest thing to happen to online retail since Amazon.com, and create a domino effect that will become the new global standard for international eCommerce.

The White House is looking to 3D printing as a model to revitalize the American manufacturing industry. Oh, and to help design new weapons and equipement for the military. That's the basis of a new $200 million public-private initiative announced by the White House this morning, which will create three new advanced manufacturing centers around the country. The White House is opening a competitive bidding process to universities and companies to host these centers, but all three will be modeled after a 3D printing institute launched in Ohio late last year, also funded by the government.

U.S. airlines have been rolling out Internet service on flights for several years. But the service, which typically uses Earth-based antennas, is often too slow for today's data-guzzling Web apps.

Qualcomm Inc. QCOM+0.23% is pushing the Federal Communications Commission to free up airwaves used by the satellite industry. Such a system could be years away, but commissioners are likely to vote Thursday in favor of opening the issue to public comment, agency officials said.

Advanced voice recognition will detect whether a customer is who they say they are after just 30 seconds of normal conversation, the bank claims.

The system, which is powered by the voice specialists Nuance, who are also widely known to be behind Apple’s Siri technology, could end the frustration of customers who struggle to remember passwords.

Barclays, is the first financial services firm to deploy voice biometrics as the primary means to authenticate customers in their call centres. A verified voiceprint is used to identify the caller to the system, which will be rolled out across Barclays in the future.

the retailer is using software to track how much time you spend in specific departments within the store

sensors within the store collect information from customer smart phones as they attempt to connect to Wi-Fi service. The sensors can monitor which departments you visit and how much time you spend there.

For example, governments, organizations, corporations, educational institutions, and the military are in the process of installing connected sensors to just about everything, from the concrete in streets, bridges, highways, and buildings, to cars, boats, and everyday products,